We regularly send out sample lightboxes to our registered buyers to demonstrate the depth, range and quality of images on the fotoLibra site.

Sometimes we get a number of out of the office auto-responses back (I am out of the office for the next six years, please address any urgent enquiries to scapegoat@megabank.com) but most mid-sized companies will send a boilerplate reply.

These often link through to their Terms & Conditions, and it’s worth reading them for the sheer gall they display.

Here’s one, verbatim from a London magazine:

By submitting Material to the Picture Desk you grant to us a perpetual non-exclusive royalty-free licence to publish or otherwise use the Material in any Publication.

Just by submitting them! In other words, “thank you for showing us your pictures. They’re ours now. So sod off.”

Ryanair is rumoured to have a clause in its T&Cs which reads “What part of NO REFUNDS do you not understand?” But I couldn’t find it.